Queer Culture Research Articles

We are stronger when we are connected: Queer counterpublics and the Korean Queer Culture Festival

This paper examines the emergence of queer counterpublics in South Korea through a case study on the opening ceremony of the Korean Queer Culture Festival (KQCF) in 2015. Due to an outbreak of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), the organizers live-streamed the event via YouTube instead of inviting the participants to the Seoul City Plaza, where they set up the stage. During the opening ceremony, social media platforms momentarily became alternative spaces for queers to interact with each other on a real-time basis. In analyzing a series of concerted actions, such as lining up in front of a police station for a permit, setting up a stage, writing a statement, shooting a video for broadcast, watching the event on YouTube, posting messages and pictures on social media, and exchanging messages with friends, I discuss how queer counterpublics emerge, contesting the heteronormative and heteropatriarchal public sphere in South Korea.

Analyzing the Coverage of Queer Culture Festival Using Structural Topic Modeling: Focus on Analysis of the Coverage From 2000 to 2023

Analyzing the Coverage of Queer Culture Festival Using Structural Topic Modeling: Focus on Analysis of the Coverage From 2000 to 2023

Some Liked It and Some Did Not: (Re)Circulating Lesbian Culture Among Queer Generations

Naming oneself, and claiming an identity and a community, depends largely upon how people define and represent themselves, and whether that self-definition and representation is accepted by, or legible to, others who inhabit different social positions based on age, gender, sexuality, and often generation. My aim is neither to rehabilitate the lesbian past or lesbian words for identity, nor to reject the increasingly broad use of the term queer. Rather, as a Generation X lesbian, I contend that lesbian culture, identity, and community continue to have much to offer for other categories of queerness that are similarly “untidy”, contested, or less well-understood by the mainstream. Approaching lesbian history, culture, and identity as dynamic and complex broadens possibilities for who might find connection and belonging in a lesbian past and a queer future. I explore an eclectic lesbian archive with an intergenerational Canadian focus that centers lesbian identity, community, and representation. My analysis supports my assertion that lesbian and queer inheritance flow multi-directionally, across and among people of varied generations and different social locations. I further posit that far from being anachronistic, lesbian, as a term for identity and culture, and as a political project, has ongoing productive potential, vitality, and agility that exceeds generational or linear understandings due to its fundamental grounding in self-definition. (Re)circulating lesbian and queer culture, therefore, functions as intergenerational wealth, community building, and cultural memory, bridging past pleasures, knowledge, and affective attachments with present and future possibilities for living.

Repression, Permeation, and Circulation: Retracing and Reframing <i>Danmei</i> Culture Online in Mainland China

<i>Danmei</i> (耽美), which is also called ‘boy’s love’ (abbreviated as BL), refers to fantasy textual stories depicting gay male romantic relationships (McLelland and Aoyama, 2015). The rapid proliferation of this popular culture has triggered scholars to reflect on the ‘queer culture’ in which it is represented. This article aims to explore the intrinsic connection between Chinese <i>danmei </i>culture and Chinese queer culture in digital media. By adopting the research method of media archaeology and culture materialism, I will map the development of <i>danmei</i> culture in mainland China into three periods: repression period (1994-2003) when the state authority compelled <i>danmei</i> and queer culture to find shelter in virtual cyberspace; permeation period (2003-2016) when queer culture reshaped <i>danmei </i>culture, and the former two generate multiple forms of expression on the internet; and circulation period (2016-2021) when digital media industrialised <i>danmei</i> culture. Then, a cultural framework, ‘queer-<i>danme</i>i-media’ will be proposed, in reference to the interaction of ‘affect-body-world’ described by Melissa Gregg, Gregory J. Seigworth, and Lisa Blackman, to reinforce the social and political functions of <i>danmei</i> and transfer it from generalised pop culture towards the cultural representation and campaign position of queerness and feminism.

Transnational queer cultures and digital media: an introduction

Abstract Queer cultures have long been transnational and in times of rapid technological advancements, large migration flows, and intense cross-cultural exchanges, queer connections are evolving in new forms and meanings. These developments occur at the intersection of various intertwined geopolitical scales: urban, regional, national, continental, and global, as well as physical and digital. This introduction synthesizes various theoretical and methodological discussions to highlight the ambivalences of contemporary queer cultures, focusing on their intrinsic transnational and digital conditions. The authors contributing to this issue demonstrate that understanding queer cultures in the digital age requires examining the roles of various actors, including big tech employees, online platform volunteers, queer influencers, audiences, and migrants. They also highlight how queer digital cultures transcend national borders and challenge oppositional binaries, such as local vs. global and the West vs. the Rest, all while maintaining a critical perspective on the ambivalences of digitality.

“We are openly, proudly Subjective … This history is important to our contemporary survival”: queer embodied knowledge and the curatorial work of ICT-based LGBTQIA+ history content creators

PurposeThis article reports on findings from interviews with ICT-based content creators whose work focuses on documenting and curating queer history and culture. The research specifically examines how as amateur historians, the participant’s embodied knowledge plays a central role in how they engage with discourse about queer historical figures, methods of queer historiography and community accountability.Design/methodology/approachThe research deploys a queer constructivist framework to qualitatively gather and analyzes the semi-structured interviews of 31 North American content creators who curate digital project related to queer history and culture. The interviews were gathered between August 2022 and August 2023.FindingsThe research highlights how the subjectivity of queer embodiment aids, rather than hinders, participants' ability to collaborate with LGBTQIA+ communities while also addressing more significant ethical questions around intersectionality and inclusive historiographic work.Research limitations/implicationsThe content creators’ own positionality and commitments to community accountability and queer inclusivity fostered richer stories and historical documentation, while also helping make visible queer identity as affirming and valuable within queer culture. Additionally, practical implications include highlighting the value of ICT-based content within the distribution of educational and informational resources related to queer history.Originality/valueThis research offers an underexamined intersection of historiography and queer embodiment. While extensive scholarship on institutional and community-based historiography work exist the content creators interviewed within this study exist within the space of both, often using a combination of embodied knowledge and traditional curatorial work to translate between such spaces, inviting, in turn, new ways of thinking about queer archival knowledge.

BUSCAR EL CEL: AUTOEXILI EN ELS HOMES I ELS DIES DE DAVID VILASECA

This article examines how David Vilaseca represents the process of self-exile of the protagonist of Els homes i els dies and analyzes the displacement of identity that occurs in fictional subjects who disidentify from their cultural contexts. I argue that David Vilaseca contributes to the project of building a Catalan queer culture. I propose the concept of self-exile as a critical tool to analyze other literary representations of queer identities in the field of Catalan literature in which other queer authors have also constructed the identity of their characters based on a disidentification and disconnection from the dominant culture. This process leads them to geographical self-exile accompanied by a process of self-exclusion or opting out.

TikTok’s queer public culture of mental health support

TikTok offers LGBTQ+ young people a queer public through which to negotiate mental health difficulties. Data from an Australian survey of LGBTQ+ young people was analysed to consider TikTok-specific mental health support. Five key themes of support related to: 1) sharing experiences; 2) encountering ‘people like me’; 3) comfort and safety; 4) mental health education; and 5) feeling less alone. These overlapping themes foreground the affective aspects of TikTok use for many LGBTQ+ young people, reflecting Cvetkovich’s theorization of ‘queer public cultures’. This can be seen in LGBTQ+ young people’s collective negotiations of mental health on TikTok — as a platform that offers new affective connections to queer culture, while continuing an ongoing culture of peer support forged through collective struggle, survival, and creative practice.

Exploring debates over “boys love” media in the Philippines: from misogynistic backlash to queer emancipation

ABSTRACT As a genre originally emerging from Japanese women’s popular culture and developing into a transnational phenomenon, debates over “Boys Love” (BL) media have increased in recent years. Within this article, we explore debates over BL through a case study of its reception in the Philippines, situating our analysis within the broader context of the Philippines’ heteropatriarchal culture. Drawing upon critical discourse analysis of traditional and new media discussions responding to the rise of BL fandom in the Philippines and qualitative interviews with 31 LGBTQ+ fans of BL, we reveal tensions between those who view BL positively and negatively. Through a feminist and reparative queer reading of our data, we contrast cisgender gay men’s dismissal of the genre as always already problematic due to its emergence from women’s culture with LGBTQ+ Philippine fans’ positioning of BL as an emancipatory media genre that combats homophobia. Ultimately, we argue that attempts by certain critics in the Philippines to downplay the queer emancipatory potentials of BL emerges from a misogynistic rejection of the contributions of women to Philippine queer culture. We conclude by calling for a more nuanced appreciation of BL’s queer interventions which recognises the genre’s deconstructive force.

Tórtola Valencia, José Zamora, and the art of queer collaboration

ABSTRACT This article assembles and analyzes an archive of texts and images that attest to the interactions of the modern dancer Carmen Tórtola Valencia and the illustrator José (Pepito) Zamora between 1914 and 1917. Their relationship emerges from the archive as a collaboration whose queerness hinges on their performances of non-normative gender, rumors concerning their homosexual inclinations, and their joint efforts to increase their celebrity and nourish their creative work. Tórtola and Zamora cultivated their queer personas and drew attention to their art by associating with one another. Their queerness and creativity were a shared endeavor that issued from and fed into a series of public performances, dances, costume designs, illustrations, and novels. Studying this collaboration requires a methodological shift in relation to previous scholarship on early twentieth-century Spain, which has tended to segregate research on male homosexuality from work on female homosexuality or lesbianism. Today there is a growing need to recognize the rich interactions between individuals who occupied different positions on spectra of sex, gender, and sexuality in modern Spain. Tórtola and Zamora have been largely overlooked in existing studies of male or female homosexuality; they are more at home in an examination of queer culture.

Reclaiming the Silenced History of LGBTIQA+ Activism and the HIV/AIDS Crisis through Irish Theatre. An Interview with Phillip McMahon

The playwright and theatre director Phillip McMahon is also co-founder and co-director of THISISPOPBABY, a Dublin arts company founded in 2007 and said to have redefined modern Irish theatre, ripping up the space between popular culture, counterculture and high art. Their shows have played and toured around Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, and beyond. THISISPOPBABY voices queer culture on stage making space for the history and stories of the LGBTIQA+ Irish community positioning itself between performance and politics. The first play written by McMahon purely with LGBTIQA+ characters is Once Before I Go (2021), in which he explores and examines the legacy of the AIDS crisis in Irish queer lives. McMahon does not only voice the community’s historic pain, shame, and stigma, but he also foregrounds the fact that, despite marriage equality, the LGBTIQA+ rights movement has not come to an end. In fact, he claims that, after the COVID-19 pandemic, a wider society is ready to hear stories that have been long buried, forgotten, and suppressed.

The (unlocated) in-game gender performativity in contemporary China: exploring gender swapping practices in the online game sphere

ABSTRACT Gender swapping—selecting a different gender for an avatar in a game than the one assigned to the player in real life—is common, especially in massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs). Such swapping enables a livable transsexual experience. This experience is challenging and dangerous in the real world, which is dominated by gender dimorphism and heteronormative values. Building upon Terry Lovell’s (2003) critique of Judith Butler’s (1990, 2004) concepts of gender performance and performativity, this article identifies different gender swapping practices and their cultural and political implications in contemporary China. Through digital ethnography and in-depth interviews with 31 interviewees, we identified two distinct types of in-game gender swapping: in-game performance and in-game performance of performativity. Regarding in-game performance, heterosexual gamers choose an opposite gender to achieve better outcomes, to avoid sexual harassment, and to fulfill heterosexual- and homosexual-gazing desires. Lesbians’ and gay men’s in-game performance of performativity highlights the newly emerging practice of queer dating and socializing in MMORPGs, displaying a productive process of nonconforming identity creation. However, due to the extensive online censorship and an increasingly hostile environment towards queer culture, the performativity of in-game gender-swapping—which has the potential to disrupt the social order both within and outside the gaming sphere—cannot be identified.

The Subject of Queer Community in Teenage Books: Ukrainian Discourse

<p><strong><em>The purpose of the study</em></strong><em> is to find out the specifics of the perception of the LGBTQ(IA+) community in books for Ukrainian adolescents.</em><em></em></p><p><strong><em>Research methodology. </em></strong><em>A survey was used to identify the respondents’ opinions on the topic. A number of assumptions were made. In particular: 1) such literature will be more interesting to young people; 2) respondents will believe that this topic should be presented in teenage literature because the world in general and Ukrainian society in particular are multifaceted and diverse, so it is normal to hear all voices; 3) realistic prose and genre publications will compete for readers’ attention; 4) such books will be in demand if they are primarily about an interesting story. Accordingly, our task was to verify these assumptions. Based on this, we created a questionnaire of 7 questions: 2 open-ended questions and 5 with possible answers (+ «other» option). The «Teenage Books on an Important Topic» survey was conducted on November 10–13, 2023, using the snowball method with the help of Google Forms. A total of 145 respondents were interviewed. To process the information received, the following methods of generalization and analysis of information were used: systematization, grouping, qualitative (text analysis, classification) and quantitative (digital data) methods of data interpretation. The results are presented as a detailed verbal description. </em><em></em></p><p><strong><em>Results.</em></strong><em> It was found that the vast majority of respondents are young people living in large cities. 96.6% of respondents believe that the topic of the LGBTQ(IA+) community <strong>should be</strong> represented (including a balanced representation) in Ukrainian teen literature. 3.4% of respondents believe that it <strong>should not be</strong> represented. According to the key messages, the following groups can be distinguished from the category «<strong>should be</strong> represented» because it: 1: 1) promotes awareness of adolescents about the topic of the queer community, overcoming prejudice and stigma; 2) helps to understand that the orientation of people who are part of the queer community is a variant of the norm, and it is the norm that should be accepted by all members of society; 3) promotes the development of a culture of tolerance, gender equality, self-awareness, and self-acceptance by any member of society; 4) promotes cultural identification and representation of adolescents belonging to the queer community; 5) makes it clear that literature should cover all aspects of life; 6) is a reality for many adolescents; 7) because the niche needs to be filled. The arguments that the topic «<strong>should not be</strong> represented» include personal rejection; stereotypical understanding of the «usefulness of literature/art»; misunderstanding of the role of cultural identification; and the traditional accusation of the threat to the institution of the «traditional» family.</em><em></em></p><p><em>Only 55 respondents were able to name certain works from this segment by 27 foreign and 8 Ukrainian authors, and there is no distinction between books by age categories. On the Ukrainian book market, publications on the topic are represented by two genres: science fiction and fantasy and realistic prose. Annotations to publications containing elements of queer culture rarely mention this. Indirect and disguised/metaphorical/allusive references dominate.</em><em></em></p><p><em>Almost all respondents are ready to buy books that cover the topic of queer culture, among other topics. However, 4% of respondents would not buy or read such books under any circumstances. Thus, the results confirm all our assumptions.</em><em></em></p><p><em>It should also be noted that the Ukrainian book market is dominated by translated editions. In addition, we can assume that for Ukrainian authors and publishers (in order to avoid being judged), the best way to present the topic of the LGBTQ(IA+) community in books for Ukrainian adolescents would be to present it through well-written and published interesting/important stories in which characters belonging to the queer community act on an equal basis with all other characters and this is justified and is the norm.</em><em></em></p><p><strong><em>Novelty. </em></strong><em>This is the first niche audience study of the perception of the specifics of the representation of the LGBTQ(IA+) community in books for Ukrainian adolescents.</em><em></em></p><p><strong><em>Practical importance.</em></strong><em> The obtained results can be used in the process of forming publishing portfolios of Ukrainian publishing houses; promoting reading; teaching disciplines related to teenage literature, in particular, the author will include the data obtained in the content of the author’s course «Fiction Text from A to Z» and the module «Teenage Literature» for students majoring in 061 «Journalism» (curriculum «Publishing and Media Editing», «Media Production», «Journalism and Social Communication», «Advertising and Public Relations»).</em><em></em></p><p><strong><em>Key words:</em></strong><em> LGBTQ(IA+), queer community, queer history, queer culture, reading, teenage literature.</em></p>

Resisting Trauma: Exploring Queer Emotional Narratives in Madame from the Perspective of Cultural Politics of Emotion in Chinese Context

This paper delves into the documentary Madame, examining the intricate emotional narrative of Qihui Fan within the Chinese cultural framework using Sara Ahmed’s Cultural Politics of Emotion. By analyzing Fan’s experiences, encompassing childhood strife, youth prostitution, and grappling with a sense of nothingness in middle age, the exploration delves into his emotional journey and the construction of his queer identity. Employing Ahmed’s framework, it dissects how emotions, notably pain and pleasure, interplay within Fan’s narrative. Through resisting societal norms and embracing a persona—madame “BILAN DE LINPHEL,” Fan navigates pleasure as a form of rebellion against heteronormativity. However, this pleasure is fleeting, entangled in a cycle of despair, as his narrative oscillates between self-empowerment and trauma-driven despair. The analysis uncovers Fan’s struggle for recognition in a society with limited tolerance for queer identities. It scrutinizes the performance of emotions, the role of pleasure in resistance, and the narrative’s performative nature. Ultimately, this examination unravels the complex interplay of emotions, societal control, and identity struggles within the context of Chinese queer culture, shedding light on the challenges and nuances faced by individuals like Fan.

Queer Digital Forensics as Methodology for Documenting Queer Culture at Higher Education Institutions

This article proposes queer digital forensics as a method for exploring the discursive manifestations of queerness across multiple institutes of higher education (IHEs). Informed by historical frameworks of queerness within IHEs and contemporary understandings of queer archival theory, the article identifies queer digital forensics as an innovative tool to highlight both the resilience and absence of queerness within geographically and ideologically diverse IHEs. Through analysis of four IHEs, the article finds that the imagined presence of queerness on a campus often contradicts queer visibility within digital settings while offering new ways to enumerate queer visibility, even within fiercely anti-queer IHEs.

토픽모델링을 활용한 성소수자 보도 분석

This study aimed to identify how Sexual and Gender Minority(SGM) are represented in the media by identifying the main issues that appear in reports on SGM in domestic media from 2001 to 2022. The data collected from BIGKinds was analyzed using the topic modeling method using R 3.4. As a result of the analysis, a total of eight themes (SGM rights and queer culture festivals, diversity and human rights issues as a political issue, the interaction between fear of COVID-19 infection and the hate of SGM, the problem of hate speech and discrimination against SGM people in our society, stories of living as an SGM, legal systems and rulings on SGM rights, changes towards an SGM-inclusive society abroad, and SGM people's lives in the entertainment and cultural industries) were identified. Implications were discussed based on the findings.

Larp as a Potential Space for Non-Formal Queer Cultural Heritage

Queer experience has, until very recently, been invisible or significantly misrepresented in cultural and scholarly fields of record including history, sociology, and ethnography. Self-recording of our lives, communities, and culture has occurred almost exclusively through non-formal means. Queer heritage has seen recent scholarly study of these non-formal means in the form of archives of oral histories, ephemera, and ethnographies. This work emphasises the critical role safer community, social, and performance spaces play in containing, creating, and disseminating queer histories and heritage. Despite this increased visibility, the need for more grassroots expressions of nonnormative genders and sexualities remains crucial for queer people to find support.
 As part of my wider work exploring the potential live action role-playing games (larps) might have for the exploration of gender subjectivity through play, in this paper I suggest that larps can also provide a space to document, disseminate, and educate on queer experience, history, and culture. Larp is a democratic form of expression that does not require performance skill or training, but rather allows people to experience empowerment, including for those who come from marginalized backgrounds, i.e., through emancipatory bleed (Kemper 2020; Baird 2021; Cazeneuve 2021). Larp has on occasion been used for non-formal education on queer history, such as in the larp Just a Little Lovin’ (2011) about the HIV/AIDS crisis in the 1980s, which includes educational workshops and debriefs on notable historical and cultural themes (Groth, Grasmo, and Edland 2022). Larp used this way is not dissimilar to the way queer social and performance space has been co-created as a container for both meaning-making and heritage for LGBTQIA+ people. On this basis, I argue that game design that seeks to reflect and represent this kind of queer cultural production in social and performance spaces may allow for the non-formal education on LGBTQIA+ lives and heritage, as well as opportunities for personal (gender) expression, exploration, and embodiment.

“Of All the Continents, Asia is the Gayest”: Resisting Heteronormativity in Gaysia: Adventures in the Queer East

This paper explores the resistance strategies employed by the queer community against the marginalization imposed by heteronormativity. It delves into the physical, psychological, moral, and economic impacts of heteronormativity on queer individuals. Employing a textual analysis approach, the study focuses on Benjamin Law’s book, Gaysia: Adventures In The Queer East, as a primary source of insight into the experiences and observations of queer individuals in Asian countries. Through the lens of queer theory, this study aims to gain a deep understanding of queer identities, power dynamics, and the transformative potential of homonormativity as a mode of resistance. Although Benjamin Law in his travelogue suggests that Asia, with its most populous countries like China, India, Indonesia, and Japan, is the gayest, the normative and rigid social setup prevalent in most Asian countries does not affirm anything beyond the heteronormative realm. Consequently, the queer community constantly conflicts with the conventional straight society. Building upon Law’s observations, this paper argues that homonormativity emerges as the counterculture embraced by the queer community to resist heteronormativity. By shedding light on the resistance strategies employed by queer individuals, specifically the adoption of homonormativity as a countercultural force, the paper contributes to a deeper understanding of the challenges and resilience within queer culture in the face of heteronormative pressures in Asia.

“Dream Boy” and “Hotmale”

Abstract Gender and sexuality have gradually become the focus of more semiotic landscape research, however, studies relating specifically to sex tourism spaces are limited and with those in the Thai context even more so. Therefore, this paper examines the discursive construction of Phatphong 2, one of the famous destinations for sex tourism in Bangkok among male homosexuals, as queer space. Drawing on code preference and inscription (Scollon and Scollon 2003) and visual social semiotics (Kress and Van Leeuwen 1996), we analyze the linguistic and semiotic resources in sexed signs. Findings reveal that Englishization, particularly the terms “boy” and “Bangkok” in shop signs, creates a glocalized and international queer identity for Phatphong 2. The salience of the lean male muscular body and marginalization of transwomen in promotional signs unveil the hegemonic masculinity in queer sex tourism spaces. The study concludes that sexed signs in sex tourism spaces are semiotic aggregates of global queer culture.

The Ecstasy of Queer Noise

An essay of creative nonfiction about sound and queerness, including descriptions of trans and queer culture as they apply to the sonic arts.